Ocarina of Time was my first game in the Zelda franchise. Not this version tho, Ocarina of Time 3D. I won't get into the details with that version, but I very much enjoyed it and wanted to play other games in the series. The same year, or the year after, my one uncle gave me his N64. I'm pretty sure there was only two games that came with it. Star Wars: Episode 1 - Racer and this game. Barely touched Star Wars at but OOT, well I already really enjoyed the 3D remake so I was excited to actually give the original a try. I loved it. At least I'm assuming I did, for some reason I replayed this version so many times back in the day..it became my most replayed game ever for a while. I memorized the entire game, every major bombable hole location, every gold skulltula. I don't know why I played this game so much but I think I ended up overplaying it to the point I started not loving it as much. With this Zelda marathon, I was able to replay this once again after not replaying it in like 10 years. Even now, I still felt some of those overplayed woes I had back then, but mostly in the early game. Even now, 90% of the collectables came right back to me. Even now, it was still fun playing this game and I still love it for getting me into Zelda and into other Nintendo games in general. This game is not perfect, and I do have some criticisms for sure, but this is an important game in regard to the history of gaming and an important game to me.

One of the best aspects of this game is its story and world-building in comparison to past games. The main plot is actually pretty similar to ALTTP. You are tasked with collecting 3 Spiritual Stones (pendants), have to obtain the Master Sword in the Temple of Time (the Lost Woods) and then you must awaken the seven sages (seven maidens) so you can destroy the barrier in Ganondorf's castle and defeat him. Very similar to ALTTP, except instead of traveling between the Light and Dark world, you must travel between the present and future. See, you actually start as young link but when you obtain the Master Sword, Link is sealed in it for seven years and becomes an adult. In terms of the story, this is much more interesting than the light and dark world was. The world changes around you as you travel to the future, and so do the characters. Speaking of them, this game is chalk full of em and they're way more interesting this time around. Link himself has way more personality than he ever did in past games. I still definitely prefer future iterations of him but he's solid here. Zelda is MUCH better here and actually plays a big part in the story. She has way more scenes and due to that and her Shiek persona, she's absolutely one of the best if not the best character in the game. Ganondorf is actually seen with his non-pig design here and there's a reason this game made his human form iconic. The sages, unlike the unnamed maidens, are actual characters here. Not just throughout their temples, you meet pretty much all of them as young Link throughout Hyrule and you help them out along the way. This helps in making them memorable and let me tell you they very much are. Whether it's your childhood friend Saria to the rough and tough Goron Darunia, they're all pretty different characters and again are actually characters this time around. The little side characters you meet in each location are memorable to as the dialogue they are given is translated much better. ALTTP I found to a decently plain and straight-forward English translation. Here tho, they like to be quirky and make a lot of the side characters say weird and interesting things which helps the world feel alive. Something else that makes the game feel alive is the many races that are found in this world. ALTTP had Hylians and Zora. Not only does OOT have those (and they're more fleshed out) it added Kokiri, Shiekah, Gerudo, Deku, and Goron's. All of these helps add to the world-building immensely. Something that would make the dialogue better in this version of the game is if you could skip to the end of single textboxes. You either have to read each one slowly or if you try to make it go faster, it skips to the very end of a set of textboxes. Majora's Mask fixed this and so did the 3DS remake, but I thought it was worth pointing out here because it can be a tad bit irksome.

The combat in this game is very different from ALTTP, simply because it's 3D now instead of 2D. This game introduces Z-Targeting. When you hold the Z button in front of an enemy, you will automatically target and face their direction the entire time. This is incredibly helpful and is almost needed with a game like this. Because this game is in 3D, this changes Link's moveset dramatically. You still swing your sword but now depending on your button inputs, you'll do different swings. You can do a vertical, horizontal swing and a jab. If you z target, have your sword out and press the a button, you do a jump attack. You can backflips, you can do side jumps. Link now auto-jumps whenever you go off a platform or a ledge. Just your basic move set is fun and imo more fun than 2D Zelda. This isn't even getting into other items like the hook-shot which had an amazing transition into 3D. That and the bow puts you into first person and it just works marvelously. The slingshot and boomerang puts you into like a over the shoulder third person view. Funnily enough, each set of items I mentioned are exclusive to each form of Link. Young Link can only use certain items and vice versa for Adult Link. Along with the enemies being more fun and interesting in a 3D environment, the combat in this game was improved from past games and it's honestly amazing for a game from 1998 and amazing for Zelda's first foray into 3D.

The overworld honestly is not the best, I think. It was their first 3D game, I'll cut them some slack but I don't care for Hyrule Field. The size was most certainly impressive back in the day, however now I just see it as wasted potential. It's pretty empty, not very interesting to look at and it's "secrets" are lame. Basically any secrets it has are holes under boulders or completely invisible holes you bomb to unlock. You can find these with the stone of agony but you need a rumble pak to even use it. Otherwise, you either have to randomly guess where they are like Zelda 1 or memorize where they, are after looking them up, on future playthroughs like I did. Wouldn't be much of an issue if some of them didn't have important stuff like gold skulltulas or a heart piece. Outside of that, you have a tedious big poe quest and a single NPC that's used in quest. Honestly if the secrets were just a little better, it was more visually appealing and there were a couple more NPC's, this main overworld, that's connected to every area, would be so much better to me. Honestly I feel like Majora's Mask fixed this issue with Termina Field, which is way better imo, but as it stands this is my least favorite part of the game imo. The area's connected to Hyrule Field are good however, Visually distinct and they have plenty of actually good secrets and collectables to find. However, actual side quests in this game aren't too great imo. The Biggoron one is memorable, but all the others aren't too great imo and are very much overshadowed by Majora Mask's fantastic side quests. Like there's literally a mask side quest where you have to obtain masks and sell them to NPC's. The reward isn't great, another mask, and it just reminds me of how MM handled its mask items way better. Tho alas, I should not be comparing it to a future game like that so I will stop.

My least favorite part of them game, besides Hyrule field, is young Link's portion. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad but the dungeons you go through don't compare to Adult Link's Temples. The Great Deku tree is a solid starting dungeon but it's also very simple. Same with Dodongo's Cavern and Jabu-Jabu's Belly. None of them are bad, they're just very simple compared to temples. Something that is great tho, and this applies to every dungeon in the game, is how visually distinct and memorable they are. 2D Zelda dungeons are great and all but they just don't compare to 3D ones. The type of stuff you can do in 3D dungeons can't be replicated in 2D ones. Jumping from the top of a tree and feeling the full depth of your fall as you land on a spider-web and bust through it due to gravity. Just can't work in 2D. I can see why people might prefer 2D ones tho. As long as they're well designed, they're usually more complicated and technically better "dungeons" where its easy to get lost. However, they lack the spectacle that I prefer in 3D ones. The first 3 young Link dungeons are very linear for example. They have puzzles ofc but it's hard to get lost in them unlike 2D ones. However, I don't mind that (tho in these first 3 dungeons case I guess I do cuz they're a bit TOO simple) and that's proven by the five temples in this game. Adult Link temples, while still probably more linear than some 2D Zelda dungeons, rock my socks. I'll just get into this now, Water temple is not bad. It was my least favorite temple this playthrough, but it's not bad..just can be a little tedious. It's the most complex and backtracky dungeon in the game, and feels kinda like a 2D dungeon but that's at the cost of being a little more tedious than the others (not only due to the design of the place but the iron boots ofc). It can be tough to figure out but I can apprecauet that. Fire temple is also good but just doesn't stick out as much as the other three. Shadow has a very disturbing atmosphere and relies on tricks and traps. Forest and Spirit temple are easily the best dungeons in the game. Forest is very atmospheric and is a very nicely designed dungeon with a great temple theme. Spirit temple is the only one to make use of both young and adult Link, and it does it well, as well as having the best dungeon boss in the game. Not every dungeon in this game is like amazing, but when it hits..IT HITS. Oh also the dungeon bosses vary in quality. Twinrova is the best boss in the game I think. She makes great use of the mirror shield and the witch sisters have actual dialogue and are actual characters that make the boss that much better. Phantom Ganon is cool as well and Ganondorf/Ganon himself is ofc badass. There are some weaker bosses like King Dodongo being piss easy or Morpha being very easy to cheese, however even these weaker bosses are cool to see now that the games in 3D.

Quick thing on the visuals. They don't look bad but they can be a bit ugly at times. Obviously, this is a game from 1998, so I can let it slide somewhat. I played on an actual N64 so the resolution and framerate are pretty bad. They had to be to even run this game at the time, so with knowledge of that and how the game looks its impressive. Still, I know I'd say I wouldn't compare it to Majora's Mask again...but that game is on the same system and looks way more vibrant to me. I know it's using the expansion pass but still..

The soundtrack is absolutely iconic. ALTTP is where Zelda's Lullaby originated, howevrr this version is way more iconic to me. Same with Kakariko Village tho I honestly might like ALTTP's version of it hehe. As for original songs, Lost Woods, Song of Storms, Gerudo Valley, Lon Lon Ranch are all bangers and are super duper iconic for good reasons. The Ocarina songs are all really good, and I actually like how the Ocarina plays a much bigger part in this game compared to the last two games it was in. My absolute favorite song in the game funnily enough, is Requiem of Spirit. Always has been, always will be. Something about it is kinda eerie yet mysterious. It's such a short song yet it's my favorite, idk why lol.

I was honestly very conflicted while playing this. Due to my complaints with Hyrule field/sidequests and me overplaying this game back in the day, part of me wanted to keep this at an 8. However, this game really was important in expanding my taste in games and is just an important landmark of a game in general. What really pushed me to bump it to a 9 though, was the ending. I've already seen it before, but I teared up. Not just teared up, I actually started to cry a bit. I don't know if it's just because the ending is very sweet and emotional, or because it reminded me the days I'd used to play this game a ton (insert anology of how I longed for my days of being a child just like Adult Link does at the end of the game or something idk). Either way, yeah I'll bump it to a 9. Game's not perfect but it is awesome, that's all that needs to be said.

I'm going to play Katamari Damacy after this and then move on to my personal favorite Zelda, Majora's Mask. Look forward to those reviews in the near future!

WARNING: This review is very spoiler heavy!

Let me quote ProudLittleSeal’s amazing review on Fallout here for a bit

“The trouble with calling something “ahead of its time” is that it implies whatever made that something so special has become standard since its release.”

Now, this quote could be applied to many games that people call “innovative” or anything synonymous with the word, look at something like Half-Life for example, many people cite its focus on actual storytelling and immersion as one of its biggest innovations for the FPS genre at the time, but one thing that people don’t mention quite as much is it’s gameplay, where instead of shooting enemies from point A to point B (while maybe solving puzzles as you go along), you go through a variety of smaller sections where gameplay can differ pretty drastically, whether it is the survival horror-esque sections inside the Black Mesa facility, or the fast-paced gunfights between you and soldiers (and the aliens later on), and then at the last few levels of the game, a mix of platforming and gunfights in the alien world of Xen (whether you think Xen is good or not it’s up to you), it’s this variety of gameplay loops that many devs still did not try to replicate after all these years that truly makes Half-Life’s gameplay alongside everything else.

Now you have read all of this and wonder:

“What does this all have to do with Arx Fatalis?”

Well, Arx Fatalis is another one of those games that are somewhat commonly called “innovative” and “ahead of its time” for many reasons, but similar to what ProudLittleSeal said about the first Fallout, very few games actually tried to do something close to Arx Fatalis, which is ironic because the game itself is clearly inspired by Ultima Underworld (Arx Fatalis was even originally going to be Ultima Underworld 3, but EA did not allow it to be Ultima Underworld 3).

And speaking of Ultima Underworld, let me stop to talk about the dreaded Immersive Simulation term, arguably one of the most misunderstood terms in all of gaming, every time a discussion that involves trying to define what does the Immersive Sim term actually means, it often ends up with people fighting to define the meaning of it, sometimes missing the actual point about the design philosophy in of itself, the main point of a Immersive Simulation is the following:

Adapting the rules of a tabletop RPG like Dungeons & Dragons, in which you can solve problems in as many ways as you can think of, while making the world behave as though it was real and you really were interacting with it

Read this for more information

Now, if we look at System Shock for example, notice how most of the rooms in the game have a bunch of furniture like chairs, cabinets, desks and all of those stuff, notice how there is a bunch of junk that serves absolutely nothing throughout the entire game like worker hats or skulls, a lot of these components are made to make Citadel Station as a place feel real and not gamey like the levels from DOOM. Heck, even look at how you engage in combat in System Shock, instead of just pressing the button to shoot, you have to point your cursor at the enemy you want to shoot and then you press the button to shoot, as with the grenades, you have to click (twice) on them to activate them, drag them out of your inventory and click at the point of the screen you want to toss the grenade at. Even the audio logs (an idea that came from Austin Grossman) were made to fix one of their biggest issues with Ultima Underworld, that being the dialogue system, in which the game paused everything to start the dialogue screen, with audio logs it was made so that you never get pulled out from Citadel Station when playing it, and the transition from Citadel Station into Cyberspace feels less like the game pulling you out of the world and more so teleporting into a different world.

Now, while Ultima Underworld and System Shock were (and still are) great games regardless at how well they execute this design philosophy compared to games released later, it is undeniable that in some aspects they are rough around the edges, mainly in terms of graphics, keyword, GRAPHICS (the art direction in System Shock is great though), since, at the time, fully tridimensional games with fully tridimensional items and character models were still not a thing, so if we look back at System Shock again, while it does have the strength of having every room look and feel as believable as it was possible at the time, the fact that the environment itself was also fully 3D (using a heavily modified version of the Ultima Underworld engine) but the enemies and items were still 2D sprites definitely makes the game, at least in terms of graphical fidelity in comparison to games that used this design philosophy to much greater effect, pretty dated.

And then, years later, there came the Dark Engine, which would take the Immersive Simulation (originally called Immersive Reality) philosophy to the next level, and it did in many ways, now that the graphics were fully tridimensional (although in some ways the graphics were outdated even for the time the first Thief game was released), the geometry of the levels could be more complex than the engine from System Shock could ever be before with further uses of verticality and such, not only that but there was more interaction with items and the environment than ever, and of course the one thing that everyone mentions about the Dark Engine when they talk about it, the usage of light and sound which could cause different reactions on NPC based on audiovisual cues like footsteps, throwing items onto the floor/wall and many more interactions with it, with no other game demonstrating it better than the Thief games, particularly The Metal Age, where the engine was used to its fullest potential.

Though the Thief games and System Shock 2 further expanded on the imagination of the Immersive Simulation design philosophy than they ever did up until this point (and up until Ion Storm released the hit Deus Ex, which knocked it out of the park the same year Thief 2 released as well), there was certainly still room for improvement and even more interesting ways to expand on the design philosophy.

And finally, that is where Arx Fatalis comes in, a game that was initially met with lukewarm response from critics and middling sales but has gathered a cult following over the years, especially after Arkane’s explosion into popularity with their hit Dishonored.

Now you might also ask me:

“Why did you waste most of your review talking about the history of the immersive sim philosophy and not actually talking about the game at hand?”

Now, if you’ve paid attention to this wall of text up until this point, you’ll notice that I gave a pretty big focus to interactivity and immersion within the game world, and how within the Dark Engine framework, they were able to excel in what they set out to do based on that image with text I linked earlier.

As with Arx Fatalis? It further doubles down on that aspect with further systems that make you engage even more with the environment, that is without ever doing anything through a menu or something, look at how you make potions in the game, you first need to use a pestle and mortar on flowers (like a Water Lily flower), and then you combine the water lily powder with a empty bottle, after that you have to use a still (and also have a certain amount of the ‘Object Knowledge’ skill unlocked to do the potion) and after that you’ve done a single potion, only by touching your inventory and a still that is seen in a few places you find through the game, like the alchemy room in Arx’s castle, another example is how you make bread, where you need to combine flour with water to make dough, and then put it on a fire (on which you can light with the spell ‘Ignite’) and BOOM, you have done bread, is that particularly useful? Not really, since there are far more effective options for healing in the game like a Life Potion or the ‘Healing’ spell, but what really does matter is that all of those subsystems make the world feel more immersive and therefore make it so that you actually feel like engaging with objects in the real world instead of just clicking through menus and such things you would do in any other game, to the point that even buying items from shopkeepers work through interacting with the inventory in chests in real time without losing control of the character you play as.

Then there is the magic system, which is the one thing everyone mentions about this game whenever it is brought up in conversation, so it might as well have an entire paragraph dedicated to it.

Instead of simply pressing a specific button for using a certain magic spell, you have to first press the ‘CTRL’ key, draw the correct runes in the correct order, and then click on any spot, and then release the ‘CTRL’ key to cast the spell, a genuinely creative magic system that, much like the cooking and alchemy systems, make the game world feel even more immersive, leading to more interesting interactions within the environment using the magic system, and truly make you feel like a actual wizard performing magic (insert IGN meme here), rather than simply pressing (or holding) a button/key to perform magic like in other RPGs or even games in general (granted you can precast up to three spells, including repeats, which will be incredibly important when dealing with a few enemies you find throughout the game), not to mention can make some fights more intense as a result (like the ones against the Lich), as you have to both pay attention to how you are drawing the runes to not mess it up but also pay attention to the enemies for them to not hit you (and boy are the Lich and Ylsides going to stomp you if you don’t manage either of these things proper), and for a game with such magic system, obviously you expect it to make you want to engage more with such, and of course it will, like using the ‘Levitate’ spell to get through the Ice Caves, and also try combining spells together (like Levitate with Speed, you get through the Ice Caves much faster at the cost of twice as much mana to do so).

Really the only issue with the magic system is that it pretty much throws a wrench on the character creation, where the magic system is such a integral part of the game that you will actively want to upgrade anything related to it and a few other skills like Close Weapons (which becomes redundant once you get to use the Fireball more often), Object Knowledge and Technical Skill, even when I was limited to not being able to use more powerful armory due to not having enough Strength, I managed to use the Ylsides armory by using Blessing and the Ciprian long sword of Force to increase my strength and be able to use the Ylside armor (doesn’t help that it also gives you more strength), something I thought was really cool admittedly. Though to be fair, what WRPGs are perfect when it comes to balancing? I mean, Planescape Torment was (and still is) critically acclaimed even for the time, yet the game pretty much forces you into only upgrading the Wisdom, Charisma and Intelligence attributes, since your companions can already do the combat job for you anyway. And at least in the case of Arx Fatalis, the game is graceful enough to give you quite a handful of spell scrolls which make you capable of using those same spells without needing to do a character focused on magic spells.

Back to Ultima Underworld and System Shock, another big part of both of these games were exploring the dungeons (or space stations) these games took place in, with a variety of nooks and crannies to find throughout both the Stygian Abyss and Citadel Station respectively, and again, while I haven’t played Ultima Underworld as of the time of writing this (yet), System Shock’s Citadel Station was really fun to explore throughout the game because of how much it rewarded exploring through the station’s multiple levels, especially with the security system which would reward you with even more powerful (at least for that stage in the game) items to help you get through levels easier, even going as far as unlocking certain upgrades that you would have unlocked much later in the game have you not explored a level of the station fully.

As for Arx Fatalis, how well does it accomplish the exploration and level design of the underground world of Arx? Damn well, the level design itself is excellent, every place feels genuinely lived in with every room feeling believable, and the way every level connects with each other feeling natural and organic, doesn’t help that every level also has a handful of hidden paths you unlock throughout the levels. Another very noteworthy aspect of the exploration is the sense of freedom you get to explore the entirety of Arx’s underground world right from the get go just after a few main quests, even some late game areas you can explore before you even need to do so like the Ylsides Bunker you need to go through to fight the final boss (though you can’t go through the Crypt until you need to do the quests involving Krahoz and Zohark), not to mention that, as mentioned before in the paragraph regarding the magic system, the Speed and Levitate spells can greatly make traversing each layer of Arx much faster when you start revisiting them more often, which you will do a lot (especially in the City of Arx and the Underground Lake), but even going through each level for the first time is really fun, especially as you discover certain things that either lead to different side quests (which there aren’t a lot, but they are still good enough), or even things you weren’t supposed to discover early on but come very in handy at later points in the game (such as when I went through the Ylside Bunker earlier on in the game and found out later on I was supposed to go there at the end of the game). There are even sublevels within a different level (like the Crypt and Temple of Akbaa), though they do suffer a bit because of the puzzles, as some of these puzzles can be a bit too difficult to do without a guide and can lead to pixel hunting (the one with the symbol stones was one I especially had difficulty with, as you have to keep wandering around to find the stones with different symbols, it took me ages to find the last remaining symbol stone), but even with that slight issue, they still have great level design and never does the levels get confusing to explore or know exactly where you are, much like the rest of the game.

Just before wrapping up on the topic of gameplay, as far as the “multiple ways of the beating certain missions” that everyone mentions when talking about Immersive Sims, they aren’t the most common thing in this game admittedly, though there are some moments where you can do something in a different way and they are really interesting, such as choosing to either buy a dragon egg from the dragon found in the Ice Caves, or fighting him to get three of the same dragon egg, or giving both Krahoz and Zohark to Alia to unlock the Shield you needed to get in the third level of the Crypt to get Krahoz earlier rather than giving both Krahoz and Zohark to their original owners (Alia and Zalnash respectively), also one very interesting observation about those moments is that none of those choices are actually done through dialogue, all of those are done in real time, when even Deus Ex had choices you needed to do via dialogue…

I could keep going and talking about how great the gameplay of Arx Fatalis is, but of course, while gameplay is the most important part of a GAME, great gameplay alone does not make it memorable enough, even the best Immersive Sims have more than just great gameplay, System Shock 2 doesn’t just have great (if flawed) gameplay, it has a terrific atmosphere, a great story (especially villains), an awesome Cronenberg-esque art direction and especially incredible sound design (and soundtrack).

And I am happy to say that in the case of Arx Fatalis it is no different! For an game that takes place entirely underground, it's very impressive how Arkane managed to make every level feel distinct from each other in multiple ways, whether it is the lively City of Arx, or the haunting and desolate industrial dwarf mines, the mythical and almost otherworldly Sisters of Edurneum Outpost and the list goes on, all of these levels feel starkly different in atmosphere from the other, as well as every level looking different in any way or another with incredible art direction and architecture, further elevated by the amazing sound design and pretty great ambient soundtrack present within the game that manages to be at the very least on par with the the first two Thief games, which really shines in areas with a more creepy and foreboding vibe to them like the aforementioned Dwarf Mines and the Crypt, where you feel much more the sound of your footsteps and general interactions with the environment combined with the creepy ambient songs found throughout those levels, contrasted with the City of Arx with a more typical Tolkienesque fantasy song to further differentiate it from the rest of the levels, heck, even the Human Outpost has a song akin to a war movie like Saving Private Ryan, seeing the consequences of the war between the humans and the Ylsides. And of course, I shall never forget the voice that plays every time you draw a rune correctly (MEGA! SPACIUM! MOVIS!).

As for the story and setting? Firstly, the setting itself is like the average western fantasy setting with all the staples you would see in any media such as Goblins, Dwarves (though they are all dead) and all that stuff (no elves for some reason though), however, the setting is made far more interesting because of its premise, where a meteor has fallen into the earth and the sun started to fade away to never be seen again, and so all the races had to work together to transfer Arx into the underground, since without the sun the surface would be completely frozen over, with only very few people being able to survive there, but of course Arx Fatalis is still no slouch at worldbuilding, with many cool aspects of the world of Arx to learn about like the races of Arx, the history of Arx, or everything related to the Noden (which obviously I won’t spoil). The plot itself is also simple, you are a man called Am Shaegar (who is kind of like JC Denton from Deus Ex somewhat) who wakes up with amnesia in the Goblin Outpost’s prison, and you have to escape the prison and after a while you have to start to do missions to manage to destroy the so called Akbaa, with a lot of twists and turns along the way, a simple plot indeed (again, you don’t really have any section with major story choices throughout the game), but that’s where the charm of the game comes from, the simplicity of it’s story and world makes it so that both the simple story and complex gameplay connect much, much better and together accomplish the task of making the world feel and behave as though it was actually real and tangible much better as well, look at System Shock 1 again, that game had a very simple story but complemented everything else about it to make as though you really were in Citadel Station, and some of the same principles apply here as well.

Now, after all of this jargon I wrote (I’ll admit that I may have wasted a bit too much time explaining what the term “Immersive Sim” means), I can confidently say that, while this game is certainly not perfect (far from it), this is an excellent game that managed to use the “Immersive Simulation” design philosophy to its fullest potential possible at the time in so many inventive new ways, and even today you don’t see that many games that matches the depth of this game in specific (or at least in the ways Arx did), like come on, how many games you have seen with an magic system similar to Arx Fatalis? This game is certainly on the same level as the other great “Immersive Sims” like Deus Ex and System Shock 2 and if you are fan of this design philosophy, you should definitely play this game at one point.

I think what fans value about the GameCube is its cruelty. Not presenting a challenge with fair parameters and sending you off to give it your best shot, but tripping you up and hammering at your skull every step of the way. The warping, shifting eyesore levels in Super Monkey Ball, or seeing thirty Pikmin fall off a cliff and destroy your entire playthrough, or every aspect of F-Zero GX's design. It's a hostile format, and it's unlikely you'll accomplish much on there without becoming emotional. Double Dash is absolutely the GameCube's Mario Kart.

This bastard game.

There's malice in its code. Opponents can out-drift your red shells, while attempting to nullify an opponent's red shell by dropping an item almost never works. If an opponent bumps into you, your items are gone. There are traps and narrow, winding walkways that are tricky to drift over, and if there's a single surprise element like an opposing racer with a speed boost, or a rogue obstacle, you can guarantee that you're going in the drink and getting your items taken away from you. This is anecdotal, but I don't hear many people say they loved Double Dash as a kid. This was the game for college-aged competitors, with players going outside afterwards to swing punches.

The pain comes from the fact that Double Dash isn't actually hard to play. It's a fairly simple Mario Kart, lacking the coins and ramp tricks that fans of the newer games have developed instinctive responses to. If you're lucky, winning a race doesn't feel like a big deal. Not something you had to put a lot of effort into, and quite often it goes that way. It's when you're going for those Gold Trophies and 100% completion status where they'll throw in the last-second 8th place finishes.

The game's tone seems designed to irritate. The origin of Baby Park and "HI I'M DAISY!!". Garishly saturated colours, and constant noise from co-pilots switching positions. Hell as a theme park. The bitterness in your Spice Orange.

When you win, though, you are the bastard. The world's worst man. Death is coming, and has been earned. Enjoy these fleeting moments on your throne.

I dearly love Double Dash.

Pros:
+ the art style, visual direction, blur, and lightning effects are outstanding
+ the cutesy look serves as a perfect counterpoint to the complexity of the design
+ overworld and dungeons are smartly and efficiently designed
+ the camera is intelligently used to emphasize and hide elements in the world
+ short cuts at every corner lead to frequent moments of surprise
+ most of the game is designed around invisible systems of interlocking puzzle systems
+ a wide range of puzzles can be solved solely by observation and deduction
+ the in-game manual simultaneously serves as a guide, hint, reward, and storytelling device
+ the retro screen in the background when opening the manual is a really nice touch
+ combat and controls are simple but effective and fit the look and general design
+ enemy attacks are telegraphed well and failure is usually one's own fault
+ bomb reward and piggy bank system minimize grinding for resources
+ the checkpoint system is always fair and restarts are quick and easy
+ every area offers new enemies and requires new combat tactics
+ an integrated hint system helps to find the most obscure collectables
+ sequence breaking is very much possible and encouraged
+ the bosses are actual tests of skill but never unfair and fun to fight
+ the final boss is available very early on and not gated off behind progress
+ accessability options are plentiful and include anti-frustration features
+ the soundtrack is mysteriously introspective and part of the puzzle design
+ so many caves behind waterfalls

Cons:
- the game not pausing in the item menu is unnecessary and makes some tactics unviable
- combat options are basic and lack the freshness of the puzzles
- some puzzles are so obscure that most playery will never see or solve them
- important elements such as the items and cards are never explained
- card effects are mostly useless and their pictures seem random (tincture?)
- invisible enemies and permanently limited health points are frustrating
- the dash mechanic is buggy and can lead to a lot of cheap deaths
- manual pickups do not indicate their respective numbers in the manual
- the final boss cannot be easily restarted and takes some time to reach
- the final boss will test your patience and requires rote memorization
- story beats are barebones and the endings feel abridged

Magic Moments: Too many to count. Finding a treasure room by observing the dungeon architecture and hitting a wall for a real "eureka" moment. Going underground for the last key and wondering how much backstory is never made explicit. Finding a key item twice?!

Best Manual page: The story reveal on pages 7 and 8 is absolutely perfectly executed.


Verdict:
Let me come right out and say it: Tunic is a masterpiece. It's no surprise that Andrew Shuldice and his team had to delay the game various times, even after working on it for over seven years, as the sheer work required to create a game at this level of quality is felt from the very first, somber moments. The creators proudely wear the influence of modern classics such as Fez, The Witness, and the Zelda series on their sleeves, while producing a game that easily stands proudly among them. Behind the perfectly executed facade of cutesy characters, a simple but intricately designed audio-visual presentation, and familiar combat options lies a complex, interlocking grid of secret mechanics that require intelligence, patience, spatial awareness, and willingness to experiment to fully uncover - even the "load game" screen will take you by surprise. At the same time, players who just want to cut some shrubs, collect some loot or grind their teeth on the difficult but fair bosses will find plenty to enjoy here, although not giving explanations for even the most basic items or combat mechanics may be considered a step to far into obscurity. But for everyone willing to really invest time and effort in the world of Tunic, this is one of those gems that will keep you up all night, trying to see where it takes you while hoping the rabbit hole would never end.

Buy it, play it, uncover the manual, read the margins, wonder how they ever came up with those puzzles, play it some more and be glad you got to experience this. Andrew Shuldice's next game cannot come some enough.

Pros:
+ a tight, consciously designed experience
+ architecture feels eldritch and otherworldy
+ sceneries display incredible light/shadow design
+ environmental puzzles are varied and smartly designed
+ movement and animation systems are highly complex
+ sound design is one for the ages
+ ending sequence is a truely memorable WTF moment

Cons:
- how to progress is sometimes not obvious
- some cheap deaths cannot be avoided
- the story could have used a more definitive ending
- some of the plot elements do not seem to add up with the ending

Playtime: 2,5 hours with the standard ending and some hidden artifacts found.

Magic Moment: The final stretch and realizing how much work it must have taken to build that singular physics engine.

Verdict:
I have no idea what they put in the water at Playdate studios, but somehow, the managed to make lightning strike twice. After Limbo, which was a tightly constructed game in its own right, Inside doubles down on all the strengths of its predecessor: it combines the fluidity and simplicity of a 2D puzzle game with an assured audio-visual presentation of the highest order and offers it in the form of a tigh package that never overstays its welcome and surprises and vows at every new turn.

Even though one playthrough will be enough for most including me, one playthrough of Inside is mandatory for ever fan of the medium.

This is a very unique and good game! I was always turned off by it by the thought it has a timer, but to my surprise it actually doesn't! Yes it tracks your days, yes events happen at certain times of day, yes it is designed to be replayed over and over, yes there is an end. But it actually isn't timed! When I learned that the game really opened up to me and made sense.

This really is just one of the most immersive worlds I've played in a video game. Experience life in Sengoku Japan, walk around town, make friends, fight and kill who you want, rob people blind, do honest jobs, romance people, join one faction and betray it for another! All of this is possible and more. The emphasis on factions especially is very neat, reminds me of how Gothic and Morrowind handled factions! Decisions actually matter due to the smaller scope of the game, and bearing over 20 distinct endings!

The combat is so fun, like a mix of Yakuza, SoulCalibur, and Ghost of Tsushima! Mix up distinct fighting styles, weapons, and hundreds of unique moves. Craft, find, and upgrade highly customizable weapons. This game is designed around lock on fighting but big battles feel suitably epic and large scale and for that matter so fun! You feel like you're in a Kurosawa movie, slashing down person after person then finding one who is harder to fight, timing parries and blocks.

The music and sound is fantastic. From relaxing calm themes to upbeat and fast combat music mixing traditional Japanese instruments with modern. The Japanese voice acting is top quality, it doesn't feel overly goofy or anime-esque, it is done very straight like watching an old black and white samurai film. The sword slashes and cries of battle all sound great.

The story while simple is interesting and sucked me in as a fan of this historical period. The writing can be very serious and dramatic and also very funny and wacky. But what truly makes the story for me is just how free you are to do anything, this is an action figure of a story, a sandbox. Twist it, play with it, mess it up completely if you want!

The game is built around New Game+ and it makes for a unique and innovative system of progression. I am going to replay this so many times. I think this may become a comfort game for me due to just how replayable it is. Set a new goal for a playthrough or just see where it takes me and be surprised by new outcomes! Hell, the game could even let me simulate the mercenary or farmer life if I wanted to, ignoring the main story completely.

For those into historical Japan and samurai in general this is a gaming wish come true! Check it out! Allow your first playthrough to just be a free exploration of discovery, don't be afraid to mess up or miss something, just wander around and discover this great world! (Note, definitely have a controller for this one. Keyboard and mouse is a nightmare!)

This is basically my childhood Dragon Ball game, the one I have played the most alongside Xenoverse 1 and maybe Budokai Tenkaichi 3. It's kind of a mixed bag, though. I feel like i'm inmensely biased because of my personal history with the game, which is why i'm rewriting this review, as my previous review was maybe a little too positive; i'm not changing the game's score though, because that's still the score I would personally give it, but I feel as though it's a good idea to talk about the negatives and all of the nitpicks I have with this game despite how much I like it.

The combat is good in my opinion, not the most stunning fighting mechanics ever made but they're solid enough and pretty fun and i'd argue they're at least somewhat mechanically deep, with stuff like ki blast cancelling and such. What sells this game is mostly being able to assemble your own moveset mishmashing skills from just about every conceivable character and/or moment in the show, and it does a damn good job at that. I personally really enjoy setting up a bunch of presets with all of my favorite skills and different super souls and transformations to experiment with. Talking about transformations, the first few the game added, like SSB and SSBE, are kinda mid. Not really though, but they're more like flat stat boosts that render previous transformations obsolete, which kinda sucks. Some of the more recent transformations though, like Beast or Ultra Instinct, are incredible. They have a lot more sauce, little gimmicks that change how the character plays, with downsides and upsides or exclusive functions. That starts setting down a pattern: all newer content is much, much better than what used to be there before. It feels like an obvious statement, but given how much rougher and outdated most launch skills, models and animations are (because they are ported from XV1 which, may I remind you, is a game that released for the PS3 and the Xbox 360), it just feels like there's a big disparity that has never been quite fixed. It feels like the developers are terribly afraid of doing a little bit of a quality sweep to the old content, or what's most likely, they don't think it'll be worth the money. Xenoverse 2 has been a big cash cow for 7 years and it's probably going to continue being that. While more recent DLC (like the upcoming Future Saga Pack 1) definitely feel like they're worth the price, some of the older ones might as well be a robbery. At least in the year of the lord 2024 they all go on sale pretty often so getting most of them won't be all that expensive.

The game's story is just kinda alright, like XV1's was, nothing terribly interesting, which feels like kind of a waste of the whole time travel concept. Then again, that was fixed with DLC (how strange) thanks to the Infinite History mode and all subsequent little missions which all manage to actually show cool and interesting what if's and team ups instead of the main story's typical "we're just gonna make this guy stronger with magic".

The game's shading and visual style is the biggest elephant in the room, and I have mixed thoughts about it. On one hand, it looks like booty cheeks, everyone looks oiled up like they're about to have a twerk off and textures sometimes look like they were drawn with a marker. On the other hand, it's kind of charming? I have to admit it has grown on me. I don't really have any arguments to defend it though. It probably qualifies as stockholm syndrome. My biggest gripe with this game that I've had ever since I started playing is the fact that hair doesn't spike up in super saiyan. Some people might think it's not that big of a deal, but it kills my vibe so bad I have to use super saiyan wigs to feel good about myself. Kinda sucks because there isn't a lot of wig variety either, nor have they had the guts to at least add more hairs to the character creator that look better when transformed. To add salt to the wound, transforming hairstyles have been in DB The Breakers for like a whole fucking while now, and I have no idea why it hasn't been ported over yet. XV2 and DBTB are like flesh and bone, they share every fucking asset, i wouldn't be surprised if half of DBTB's code was just rehashed from XV2, so why don't they port it? What stops them? Like, genuinely, what stops them?

The customization is a whole other thing, but it's also not as bad as people might make you think. For a game that's branded as the "make your own unique super cool guy" game, you have very little customization in terms of body. Few hairs, eyes, mouths, whatever. A lot of characters will end up looking the same. Billions and billions of white men collectively decide to use Gohan's hairstyle. The pretty decent clothing variety serves as a little bandaid, and does allow you to make some cool combinations. The only big issue with clothing is that colorable clothing was kinda scarce and limited to original outfits, but as of recent more colorable versions of actual DB character's clothes are being released so that's not too big a deal anymore. The accesory system is lame and kicks in another episode of "why didn't they port this from the breakers?".

I gotta say, I really like Conton City as a hub. I do wish it was more interactable, cause at a certain point it just becomes a little redundant. Stuff like Krilin's milk delivery missions I enjoy in particular, because it's a slightly more casual activity that's kinda funny. Given that this game is meant to be the personal dragon ball simulator, I think it's cool if it does that in more fronts rather than just the fighting. I'll give some extra credit to the soundtrack. It's not super remarkable, but I really like the vibes it creates.

This is a game that I enjoy a lot despite it's flaws, it's sort of a comfort game for me. I'm still split on whether i'd prefer XV3 to be made or XV2 to keep living for longer. It mostly depends on the how willing the team is to make more big changes for stuff like graphics and customization. I have a lot of hope for the future, though. Every update under the new producer has been a certified banger and has made a lot of great changes and additions that have been in demand for a lot of time, so I trust that eventually he'll build up the game to a much better state that I feel it deserves.

man i fucking hate this game

So uh, I think this might end up being the year of Mario Kart for me. Idk why but I feel like playing and reviewing them all. Besides Double Dash as I don't own it and can't run it on my craptop. Either way, 64 was one of the big Mario Kart games I missed alongside Double Dash. I really don't know why I never picked this up years ago, cuz after finally playing it, I just know I would have had a blast playing it with friends.

In terms of controls and how your kart feels, this is miles better than Super I think. The drifting doesn't feel like ass anymore and is pretty solid here. Though, it can be a little tricky to pull off and you can spin out if you don't constantly move the control stick, however it feels pretty nice. Honestly a lot of the time you don't even need to drift as you can turn really well without it, and the courses for the most part don't require drifting. This is a huge plus from Super I think.

Another big improvement is the track design. The courses are now fully 3D and they're just so much more fun to play through. There's a couple I'm not the biggest fan of (I'm looking at you Toad's Turnpike and Yoshi Valley) but in general, this is a very solid selection. Also every stage is distinct and doesn't share the same 5 or 6 level themes like Super did so that's a massive improvement.

The items are also improved tho they can be sort of weird. The red shells are actually super effective in this game, as long as they don't hit a wall. Banana bunches come in 5's now, which I found interesting as this is the only Mario Kart game I've played so far which does that. Shells now rotate around you. The addition of other items like the gold mushroom or blue shell are also very nice. But getting these items can be kinda weird. There were a handful of instances where I was in 2nd place and I was just handed stars and lightning bolts which is just really OP. It's weird but I wasn't complaining because the AI in this game can be brutal

I played on every CC (except for Mirror Mode) and got every gold cup, and the CPU's on 150cc can be brutal. In general, the rubber-banding in this game is nuts but on 150cc, a couple wrong moves can completely screw you over unless you get lucky. This combined with the fact you can spin out way easier, made 100cc the ideal engine class to play on. With friends tho, I'm sure 150 is a blast.

That's another thing, I played this alone. I wasn't able to play battle mode but from what I've seen, it looks like an absolute blast. I'm only judging it from videos, but I can say it's definitely a solid battle mode when compared to other Mario Kart games. That plus the actual racing, and I'm sure if I played this when I was younger I'd love it more. I think a big part in me giving it a 7 and not anything lower despite some gripes is my nostalgia for the N64. Even despite not playing it until this year, it does bring me back to the 2013/2014 days where the N64 was my favorite console. I just love the aesthetic what can I say.

So yeah I'm pretty happy I ended up enjoying this game as I thought the controls would be way worse tbh. Back then, I played Diddy Kong Racing and didn't vibe with it much so I figured this would have the same fate. Or maybe I just need to play Diddy Kong Racing again cuz I was probably wrong back then lol. Either way, solid Mario Kart and a big improvement from Super for sure!

The people calling this game a tech demo aren't necessarily wrong. Half-life 2 runs on a (at the time) brand new proprietary engine, one that Valve is 1000% confident in. The Source Engine would, in fact, come to define the aestethic and brand of most of Valve's titles. Technology-wise, Half-life 2 is one of the greatest successes a single company could hope for, one that partly built the Valve we know today.

It would be dismissive to call the game just a tech demo, when it is a complete experience; one that is propelled forward by the new tech. The gravity gun is the perfect example. One can play the game entirely by only busting it out during puzzles (Citadel aside, even Ravenholm could be beaten without using it to throw a single sawblade against a zombie) but the fact that it can become one of Freeman's most lethal weapons makes it incredibly fun to use.

That said, it may be a bit puzzling as a sequel to 1998's Half-Life. That game was very action-focused, putting the player in situations where thinking fast and applying the right tool to the right situation was necessary for survival. In that game human enemies were bloodthirsty, cunning and lethal, which coupled with their robotic patterns of speech, made them somehow more terrifying than 2's Combine. The latter are scary at first, when they chase you around City 17 while you are unarmed; but as soon as you pick up a weapon they are revealed to basically be meat puppets, losing all sense of presence as soon as their health drops to zero, their bodies flopping to the ground in an unintended comical way. 2 must know this, as it relies mostly on (very strong and memorable) setpieces that take center stage and where the enemies are just a part of it. Half-Life 1 had plenty of setpieces (the fights against black ops assassins, the bridge and cliff sections in Surface Tension spring to mind) but in 2 they are more varied, thanks in great part to the inclusion of drivable vehicles.

Story and characters change drastically in the sequel. Where 1s plot and characters were in large part flat and one-dimensional, 2 fleshes out its supportive cast, flexing its impressive facial expressions of the Source Engine.
The character who instead loses the most from this exchange is Gordon Freeman. Where in the first game he had complete freedom to act in the structure he's given (the messiah that saves scientists and guards alike, the psychopath who murders his peers with glee, the opportunist who will kill a guard in cold blood for ammo or a gun) is now flattened into an infallable saviour of humanity. I won't argue it is bad for the story, but for ceratin players it may hurt their immersion, which is bad in itself.

There is also a throughline between the two games, the hallmark of a good series: the iconography. It's no accident that something as simple as a black and red crowbar has become an iconic symbol; not simply because it's an unorthpdox fps melee weapon, but as a tool that both games give you plenty of targets for, whether they be boxes, planks or headcrabs. It also smartly maintains the amazng sounds of the first game: the medic and HEV stations and the original voice actors for Kleiner, Barney and G-man.

I want to conclude this by talking about the latter figure. He (they? It?) is the only character that has a consistent and consistently compelling writing in both titles. The first game's blockiness and voice performance made him even more alien than the rest of the cast and the game's quirks only amplified that. Half-Life 2, despite its marked improvements in the graphics and fidelity department, continues the tradition by finding even more visual tricks to maintain the mystery of his character, shedding just enough light in his plans while not revealing all of its hand regarding the big monster and puppeteer of the franchise.

Half-Life 2 is a triumph. One that Valve is still scared to follow up properly. Hopefully Alyx is a sign of things to come. Hopefully we can all one day play Half-Life 3.

What a cool way to incorporate real life JavaScript coding skills into a cyberpunk game format. The entire game takes place in a computer terminal. It's all lime green text on a black background.

It's basically an idler, at its core. You hack into terminals and essentially mine bitcoin. There are RPG stats and multiple factions, each with their own offerings like minigames or side jobs for quick cash/exp. Hit the gym to boost your physical prowess or get a part-time job.

Everything is a loading bar.

However, you can automate anything. The only thing is- you have to manually write that code to automate.

This is so cool.
Okay, so, the game starts off and you are instructed to open the guide book. You will start off by copying the lines of code, line by line, to get a feel for it. You start off identifying the list of servers near you, the security level of a server, the node distance, etc.
You manually click the "hack for cash button." Okay. You can only do that a few times before the security level gets raised too high.
After a few hacks, you have to lower the security again.
As you play, you'll learn shortcuts or straight-up easier ways to do things. You learn how to combine all those manual steps mentioned above into one continuous loop! You tell the system to "do a server check, check the security level, hack 4 times, then security refresh" by following the logic and rules of JavaScript.
All those steps that used to be manual, are now done in the background while you tinker away on other things.
It's really rewarding to get optimized!

As a game, it is a tad boring, right. It really is cookie clicker with extra steps- and coding can get stale. As a learning tool and a unique experience, I see it for what it is. Really cool.

This is the only game I've ever played during which I've thought to myself "this is probably what it would be like to fight a dragon in real life."

From that thought, a lot can be gleaned about Dragon's Dogma. The animations and behaviours of its fictional fantasy creatures are remarkably lifelike, which bolsters its already strong immersive qualities, but the combat is arguably where it shines the most - and not just because its bows feel like semi-automatic rifles or because Arc of Deliverance is the single most satisfying move to use in any game ever made. Where a lesser game would typically have you fight a giant monster by whittling away at its ankles ad nauseam or some other comparably restrictive method, Dragon's Dogma lets you (among other things) climb onto it, knock it over, stun it, break off or cripple certain body parts, douse it in oil & light it on fire, lure it into a disadvantageous spot or environmental hazard, bring it crashing down to the ground while it's flying, send it flying through the air, freeze it, parry it, or jump off of it to reach a place you otherwise couldn't. It's like a power metal album cover come to life, with a soundtrack to match. It’s chaotic, it’s dynamic, and it’s absolutely drowning in techniques to try out.

That alone would be enough to set Dragon's Dogma above most other real-time combat systems, but what takes it to the next level is the genius pawn system. Few games offer satisfaction on the level of figuring out a golden tactic against a particularly troublesome enemy, watching your pawns become better and better at its execution over time, and being rewarded by other players for renting out your home-made killing machine to them. My mind was blown the first time I realised my pawn had learned to throw explosive barrels specifically when a tough enemy is near a ledge to kill them instantly, and almost a full decade later they continue to surprise with behaviours like this. There’s plenty else to enjoy about Dragon’s Dogma’s combat system, like the enormous playstyle diversity afforded by its classes or the chunky hitstop that provides great feedback on every attack, but it’s far from the only thing the game offers.

For one thing, Dragon’s Dogma sells the feeling of adventure very well. While not quite to the extent of in something like Breath of the Wild, you really do have to legitimately think about how to get from one place to another. Should I risk trying to clamber up that ledge or is it more practical to take the long way around, even if that means meeting more monsters? What time of day should I start my journey, or will it be short enough that I shouldn’t have to worry about all the beasties coming out when night falls? If night falls, do I have enough fuel for my lantern and is my character tall enough that it won't be extinguished by forging through bodies of water? You find yourself asking all these questions as you make your way to distant landmarks which you weren’t initially even sure if you could physically get to, which I think is enough to make the open world a net positive overall despite its blatant and unfortunate unfinished-ness. It helps that pretty much all of the dungeons in both Gransys and Bitterblack are rewarding to explore, with lots of goodies to find in hidden alternate pathways and enemy layouts which get dramatically overhauled in the post-game.

Beyond that, I’ll always stick up for the story of Dragon’s Dogma. Bingo Morihashi is seemingly cursed to always deliver well thought-out, thematically solid stories that everyone writes off as crap for some reason. Even if contextualising new game plus into it wasn’t rad as hell (and it is), the intentionally antiquated dialogue gives it so much character and it conveys such an immense, ambitious sense of progression in terms of scale. And speaking of scales (literally), Grigori is an all-timer in the realm of video game antagonists. Coupled with David Lodge’s masterful delivery, every line of his gives him such presence. He’s everything a dragon should be according to their traditional cultural depictions; not just huge, imposing and a fierce fighter, but also really intelligent and reserved to the point where it's not easy to classify him as a 'villain.' The fight against him having both style and substance in spades is just the cherry on top.

Daimon is also compelling, and his segment of the game is probably what’ll keep you coming back for more. Bitterblack Isle’s not just a wonderful, almost endlessly replayable DLC that marks a gold-standard for content density, it’s also a tantalising glimpse into Hideaki Itsuno’s full vision for Dragon’s Dogma. It was meant to have dozens of Bitterblack equivalents scattered throughout the world before its development was cut short, not the least of which included being able to travel to the moon and a massive MMO-like tower in which players could trade with one another and glimpse at each other’s worlds, endlessly stacked on top of each other. Had Itsuno and his team been allowed to carry out that vision, I’ve little doubt that Dragon’s Dogma would probably be my favourite game of all time. As it stands, it’s close enough already – all I think a hypothetical sequel would really need is for its open world to be more densely packed with content and a real-time healing system (outside of hotkeys and spells), like that of Nioh or a certain other ARPG series from the past decade or so that I hear is pretty popular.

It’s well known now that Capcom presented Itsuno with the choice to either develop Devil May Cry 5 or Dragon’s Dogma 2 a few years ago. Given the freedom that Capcom granted to him during the making of DMC5 and his recent teasing that his elusive new project is making good progress, I can’t help but have hope for the first time since release that aught is on the horizon. A Dragon’s Dogma sequel wouldn’t just be nice to see, it’d mark a victory for any and all game creators who want to see their vision fully realised.

There's something timeless about Silent Hill. I don't exactly believe that games "age", per se, but even then it finds itself born in the perfect moment of time, late enough in the PS1's life to be a perfection of the style that would be left by the wayside with the advent of the 6th generation. I made the choice to start the series with Silent Hill 2, last year, and while that is still very much my favorite of the two, there is something about the first game even it does not replicate, this hyper-detailed and yet unreal look into a nightmare world that is so much like our own and all the more unsettling for it.

I don't actually care too much for this game's story, despite its neater bits. Perhaps this is because of my love for the sequel's plot, and while that isn't a fair comparison given this is the earlier game, it was one I was inevitably going to draw up. Harry's story is surprisingly straight-forward, basically just a hero's journey to save his daughter. Throughout it he meets a few characters, with some hiding things from him and some just being victims of the town just like he is. He has no inherent reason to be here, the entity of Silent Hill as a sort of conscious Saw trap nightmare does not exist yet, to him it's just a cosmic horror he must brave through. This doesn't make it a bad story, and again there's some great moments, but I do also feel like you don't get a complete enough picture without getting a "+" ending, which I did not (I actually figured out how to do it, but using the item didn't register so I thought I must have been wrong, and locked myself out of them). Leaving bits of story ambiguous unless the player looks for them is good and admirable, but leaving important developments out... not so much, given the story is pretty lackluster without. It also does suffer from PS1 voice acting, which while occasionally funny does make it hard to take certain scenes seriously.

There's a second, greater story going on in Silent Hill, though. One told not through words and cutscenes but wordless horror and atmosphere, from enemy designs and soundtrack and skewed camera angles. I'm repeating myself but this game's sheer capacity to evoke emotions in the player is second to none - usually, it's unease or downright horror, but it takes it easy on you a lot of the time too. There's moments that are quiet or only slightly unsettling, and moments that are somber or beautiful. After the big first dungeon of the game, which is absolutely terrifying, it does sort of settle down and stop firing on all cylinders, maybe even just because the player has acquired better weaponry and more experience, and is therefore less likely to feel as unsafe. Still it's never quite out of tricks, and there's some really mean scares in there.

There are some bits that while not necessarily bad per se are pretty funny to look back at, considering what the series (well, the next few games) would become. The first boss looks absolutely terrifying, but the ones after it are... a big worm and a big moth, which is very un-Silent Hill-y. There's two levels where you just run through sewers and fight weirdo dinosaurs and bugs. Besides being kind of annoying those completely lose the "psychological" half of the horror and end up feeling pretty boring as a result. I also really don't like how easy it is to miss the rifle and make the rest of the game much harder on yourself. Still the good more than outweighs the bad, and it's generally incredible just how well they nailed what made their game unique on the first try.

Silent Hill 1 is a great game that manages to evoke a deep sense of terror and desolation. It is able to achieve this through the atmosphere it creates with the visuals and its phenomenal soundtrack. The Fog that veils the town makes you give into the fear of the unknowing as you monsters can attack you from any direction, with only the radio being the only help for you to deduce where they’re coming from, making you use your senses to defend yourself against them. The Otherworld is a grimy, blood-rusted dimension that makes you feel uneasy as you traverse through it. The riddles in the game are great fun to solve as they are challenging. The story of the game is one of tragedy and not much is revealed to you til the end of the game which makes you really feel like you’re in the shoes of the Main Character. The Bosses in the game are quite short but disturbing design wise. Overall, the game is really impressive considering it was developed for the PS1 and really Is something special.

Good Ending achieved